Kalaupapa Is Us: The Kalaupapa Community in 2002-2005

“Kalaupapa Is Us: The Kalaupapa Community in 2002-2005” describes life in the Kalaupapa Settlement for Hansenʻs disease patients, a community divided among three groups—the patients, the Hawaiʻi Department of Health workers who serve them, and the National Park Service staff who care for the area.

The authors went to Kalaupapa in 2001 to study the tiny community of Kalaupapa, sited on a peninsula that juts out from the base of the cliff that forms the north shore of Molokaʻi Island, Hawaiʻi. It was created in the 19th century by the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi as a place to exile those with Hansenʻs disease (leprosy). In 1969 the Hansenʻs disease patients were given freedom to leave, but many of them chose to stay. In 1980, Kalaupapa was made a national park. to carry out an ethnographic study for the National Park Service. The book describes the community during the years 2002-2005: the culture of Kalaupapa and the relations between the three segments of the community. It shows how patient culture resulted from the experience of Hansenʻs disease and incarceration at Kalaupapa. (130 pp.)

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Kale Langlas Oral History Archive

The archive contains 203 interviews with 78 individuals (or small groups of individuals). The interviews were carried out by Charles “Kale” Langlas or his students between 1987 and 2010 for the purpose of documenting the history of various areas. Most of the people interviewed were elderly and have … Read more

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Pili Productions is a nonprofit corporation formed in 1997 and based in Hilo, Island of Hawai‘i. We sponsor projects which describe local and Native Hawaiian culture through writing, film or other … Read more